Soonish

Soonish, Zach and Dr. Kelly Weinersmith

If you’re the type of person who enjoys xkcd, you probably enjoy Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal. It covers similar ground, although SMBC is a bit darker. xkcd is pretty sweet, really. This is my favorite SMBC, so a different vibe, for sure.

SMBC is created by Zach Weinersmith. His wife, Dr. Kelly Weinersmith, is a parasitologist. They’ve also created BAHfest, which I hope to go to one day. They teamed up to write Soonish, about technologies that are in the research or very early trying-to-develop phase right now, what they could do, how they might destroy the world, and what they think the next steps are. Technologies covered in this book include brain implants, programmable hardware and nanobots (in the very memorably named section “Dr. Duff and His Bucket of Stuff”), asteroid mining, and 3D printing organs among others. For everything except making organs they also talk about how it could be terrible for everything via, for instance, corporations running our brain implants, or nanobots eating the world. Right now the most negative thing anyone can come up with about organ printing is that maybe people will drink too much if they know they can easily get a new liver, but I’d imagine liver replacement surgery would still be pretty unpleasant with a printed organ so that doesn’t seem like a huge down side.

This was a very thorough exploration of all ten of the technologies, and a bit of an explanation why some things, like quantum computing, that you’d think would be there didn’t make it into the book. The Weinersmiths go into deep detail of all the things that have to go right to get a bunch of nanobots to do things together, for instance, and every potential way to achieve fusion, the best new technology that’s always ten years away. I also learned that apparently I can get instructions to make a small at home fusion reactor? I really wish I would have known that a few years ago. My bread skills are excellent now, but a fusion reactor? Now that would be an impressive pandemic hobby.

Part of what makes the book so good is that the Weinersmiths are very up front that they are not being futurists. They’re not trying to sell us on a new technology, or talk about the glorious future or horrifying dystopia that awaits us. They are just presenting, in a humorous, meticulously researched, and simplified way, what CRISPR is, how it could be cool, and how little we still know about how some of this works. And it’s very accessible. SMBC isn’t always family friendly, but this book is and it was much enjoyed by both my son and me, and the fact that my (admittedly very scientific inclined) 10 year old liked it should give an idea of how well the material is presented. And the parts he didn’t understand gave me an opportunity to talk about half lives and quantum mechanics with him, so a win-win from a parenting perspective!

All in all, this was a great exploration of different technologies on the horizon. I felt that I learned a lot about technologies that I had really only heard about in pop sci podcasts and articles and didn’t have a strong understanding of, and the information was by and large presented in such a way to stand on its own without a lot of editorializing. In fact, between this, Thing Explainer, and What If?, I might start getting all my science information from internet cartoonists.

Big Bang

Big Bang: The Origin of the Universe, Simon Singh

I read a lot of science and math explainer books, and I have to say, this is one of my favorites. Simon Singh sets out to explain not just what the Big Bang theory is, but why it’s what is widely supported as the origin of the universe, the challenges it faced in gaining acceptance, and the steps that needed to happen in human advancement to get us there. It is also remarkably readable, and I flew through this 560 page science tome like it was a 300 page thriller.

To explain to us the origin of the universe, Singh starts with the origin of human science. We learn about the development of geometry, and about the logical and mathematical leaps we needed for Eratosthenes to calculate the size of the Earth. We talk about Pythagoras and the music of the spheres, and about Ptolemy; about Copernicus and Galileo. Telescopes, advancements in measurements, and Einstein’s discoveries. What is most impressive here is that throughout Singh is very generous to earlier models of astronomy, and considers why it was so hard for some to accept change and a heliocentric model, or reject a cosmic constant, or consider the Big Bang. Yes, we all know now that heliocentrism is correct. But if you are just here on earth and looking at the sun rising and passing through our sky, and the constellations shifting, and feel like you’re standing still, why would you assume it’s all because of our movement not theirs? Yes, the Ptolemaic model needed a lot of extra steps and math and fancy explanations to make it work, but it did predict where the planets would be. Until Galileo and Copernicus could prove their model explained things better, it’s hard to sell something that goes against all of a person’s senses and lived experience.

The battle over the Big Bang model itself was a fascinating one as well. Basically, it was a slow war of discoveries, competing journal articles, and civil and uncivil arguments at scientific conferences between the Big Bang theorists and the Steady State theorists. The Steady State model held that there is no beginning, the universe just is the way it is, forever and constant and unchanging. It’s worth noting that Einstein himself held that this was likely correct, and publicly dismissed Jesuit Priest George Lemaȋtre’s initial theory of the Big Bang. I realize this is partly my own bias, having only learned the Big Bang, but I not only did not know for how long the disagreement between Steady State and Big Bang people went on, but also that so many scientists found the Big Bang idea distasteful and anti-scientific! The argument, likely not helped by the fact that one of the early theorists was a priest, was that the Big Bang with its idea of an initial creation moment was little more than dressed up theology. I guess I find this confusing because to me the Steady State model – that everything has just always been – is just as difficult to explain and can only be taken on faith. Either way, you still have no real explanation for why there’s something instead of nothing.

But as Singh exhaustively explains, there really were open questions as well that couldn’t initially be answered by the Big Bang – although I still maintain that ‘everything has just always been this way’ doesn’t feel like a scientific explanation, either. But the observed age of the universe and the age needed for the Big Bang theory did not correspond for a long time, not until there were several advances in telescopes and some very smart women computers did the math. The Big Bang model couldn’t explain how we went from subatomic particles to heavy metals. Oddly enough it was a Steady State theorist who ended up showing how the different stages of star development could form all the elements before the star exploded. And the big one, why would there be planets and stars and asteroids and even elements at all? If everything was moving away from everything else at an incredible speed, why would anything start to clump up at all? This was the last piece holding the Big Bang theory back until advancements in radios could detect the almost infinitesimally small variations in the cosmic background radiation that proved that there had been minute variations in the speeds at the beginning, allowing some things to start to clump up and build gravity.

Even if you know the basics of the Big Bang, Singh’s book does an excellent job of walking the reader through everything that had to happen to discover and prove the Big Bang, all the amazing scientific advancements that may not seem interconnected but when put together can change our understandings of the universe, and really, how science happens at all. And all in a very accessible format. It’s a great read for anyone who wants to know more about cosmology, math, or just the history of science.

The Shepherd’s Crown

The Shepherd’s Crown, Terry Pratchett

We have finally arrived at the end, the last book in Discworld, a book and a series which was cut short when Pratchett died from Alzheimer’s in 2015. While the last few books have been a mixed bag, and it felt like he was coming to the end for some of the storylines, I’m sure there were still more stories to be told. Who knows how far we would have gone towards creating computers and airplanes in Discworld if his von Lipwig storyline of creating the modern world had gone on? And even when I have thought the plot wasn’t what it could have been, the books are still always an entertaining read.

The Shepherd’s Crown brings to an official close the tale of one of the best characters in Discworld, Granny Weatherwax. She was the strongest of the Witches, and the leader if they could be said to have a leader. (It’s a little like saying someone is in charge of cats.) As a witch, she’s able to see when she will pass and cleans her home, leaves instructions for her burial, and her wishes for her steading – Tiffany Aching, the young witch of the Chalk.

Granny Weatherwax’s passing leaves a mark on the world, though. The reverberations are felt throughout the Disc and, more importantly, in the faerie lands. The Queen of the Elves has been defeated once before by Granny Weatherwax when she tried to enter our world, and once in her own land by Tiffany. She’s retreated since then, but now that the Granny Weatherwax’s passing has left the veil between the world week, antsy elves in her queendom sense an opportunity and lead a coup. She is deposed and kicked out, while they plan their raids on the Disc. Tiffany needs to put a stop to this, but she is pulled in so many directions taking care of her people in the Chalk, and now Granny Weatherwax’s tasks.

Tiffany needs help. Luckily, Miss Tick the witchfinder has identified some potential young women. Even more luckily, though, Geoffrey shows up at what was once Granny Weatherwax’s cottage asking to become a witch. I really loved this subplot, and it’s part of why I wish the Disc could have continued to see what new stories would be there. Pratchett’s been playing with gender on the Disc for a while now – Equal Rites, early on, already had a girl who was meant to be a wizard, but more recently we’ve had the Monstrous Regiment with an army entirely of women pretending to be men, and the issue of dwarves being allowed to express their feminine side. It’s so rare, though, in our western society that anyone considers that a man might want to do what are commonly considered ‘women’s work,’ and it’s refreshing to see that portrayed as a form of equality, too.

While when he started it I don’t think Pratchett had thought The Shepherd’s Crown would be the finale to Discworld, it works very well in this role. The ultimate battle with the elves leads to an opportunity to bring back so many of the witching characters we’ve seen before, uniting to address a threat to our world, and an acknowledgement of how much life on the Disc is changing for the witches and the faeries. Tiffany finally comes in to her own as a witch, reuniting with the power of her land and building her own cottage and respect. It’s a very satisfying ending that leaves one feeling that we’ve said a proper goodbye to some of these characters, and that things will continue well for others after our reading ends. It’s a bittersweet feeling to be done with Discworld, and temporarily done with Pratchett, but what an excellent good bye this book was.

Red, White & Royal Blue

Red, White & Royal Blue, Casey McQuiston

After reading The Ex Hex last year, I’ve been a bit more open to trying new things. So when my friend and I were comparing books from last year, while I was trying to get her to read Notes from an Apocalypse or Light of Days, and she was telling me much she enjoyed a book about an affair between the president’s son and the prince of England, I decided to be go ahead and give it a try.*

And friends, Red, White & Royal Blue is So. Much. Fun. Alex Claremont-Diaz is the son of the first woman president of the United States, and part of a first family that seems to be viewed a bit like American royals, with his older sister June, and him eagerly watched and followed as fashion and political trendsetters. The White House Trio, as they are called, is rounded out by Nora, the grand-daughter of the vice-president. Alex, a driven young man who wants to be the youngest person ever elected to Congress, is a senior at Georgetown and June is working on her developing journalism career. Everything is going great until he ends up in a scuffle with Prince Henry at the eldest prince, Prince Philip’s, wedding, ruining the wedding cake and causing an international scandal. Prince Henry and Alex have to spend time together on damage control, convincing the world they’re actually friends and things develop from there. (The book is an interesting mix of being in our world and not. Nate Silver and Anderson Cooper exist in this world; Brexit happened; all the American politicians and the British royals are different).

We follow things as they develop in the book the way they need to with Prince Henry and Alex becoming close friends from across the ocean, eventually kissing under a tree at New Year’s and developing a hot and steamy clandestine relationship, complete with many hot and steamy e-mails, as Alex’s mom enters into her re-election campaign against Senator Richards, a slimier version of Mitt Romney. It’s also a journey of sexuality as through this relationship Alex eventually comes out to himself and others as bi. Unfortunately, it’s not on his time table as their relationship is discovered via a hacked private e-mail server and leaked to the tabloids with great scandal for the administration and for the Crown, and we all wonder if love can triumph after all.

The book is adorable and really, really funny. I laughed out loud several times in this book, especially with the power point on Sexual Identity and International Ethics Alex’s mom, President Claremont-Diaz, puts together after he comes out to her. (One of the slides: FEDERAL FUNDING, TRAVEL EXPENSES, BOOTY CALLS, AND YOU.) And it’s a heart-warming book, with a happy ending not only for Alex and Prince Henry, but the world, as tons of young people show up to cheer them and their relationship on after they are outed, and families stand up and do what is right.

If there’s any drawback to the book, it’s the happiness and heart-warmingness of it, and YMMV with having a progressive woman as president and the type of United States where people would turn up and cheer on the first family after a scandal like this. I mostly enjoyed it, but I’m not going to lie, reading other ways that we could all be is also incredibly depressing sometimes. But I also almost cry every time I read my girls Sofia Valdez, Future Prez; you may have a healthier relationship with politics than I . That caveat aside, it was a super fun and incredibly funny read that I highly recommend.

*Most of my friends are more fun to talk to than I am.

Raising Steam

Raising Steam, Terry Pratchett

Last year I said that I was really happy for the Moist von Lipwig books as they had brought Discworld back to being fun. Dealing with some serious themes, of course, but largely just a fun, propulsive time. While that’s still there in the last of the von Lipwig’s, there’s also a lot the book has to do and it struggles a bit with keeping up the tempo while accomplishing all of it.

Raising Steam is, as the name suggests, about the advent of the railroads. It would be interesting to know how far into modern technology Pratchett would have gotten if he had survived to write more books. Regardless, in this a young man has put all his time, genius, and money into completing his father’s invention – a steam propelled engine. After getting it working, he takes it to Ankh-Morpork where the populace becomes obsessed with it. We also learn that the Patrician and others have know that something like this could be possible and kept a lid on it, but now feel as if the time has come. The Patrician, naturally, taps Moist von Lipwig to make the new rail lines happen.

At the same time, a means for rapid transport is needed as the most rigid and traditionalist of the dwarves are becoming more radical and violent, attacking dwarves that mingle with other species, dare to present themselves as women, and attacking the clacks towers and other signs of connection to the outside world. The reign of the more progressive king (??) is under threat.

And the book is fine, there’s still a lot of the dry Pratchett humor and it’s enjoyable enough.  The sense of inevitability with any new technology does get to be a get grating to me, I must admit, as sometimes they do bear thinking about. But the bigger piece is that there’s just a lot of mythology wedged in to each book at this point. The other von Lipwig books succeeded by only dipping their toes into it, recognizing that it existed at the edges, but Raising Steam tries to pull just so much of it in. There’s the watch, and the golems, and the goblins, and the dwarves, and all of the regions to keep straight, and it just all gets at to be a lot.

But I suppose it’s okay that so much is wedged in here since this is the last book of Ankh-Morpork! And as a series finale, while it has an overstuffed feeling, it sort of works – even if Pratchett likely didn’t plan on this being the finale. We finally get some answers on the Patrician’s love life; we see von Lipwig successful again; we see the future of Ankh-Morpork on its way. The dwarves have also had some revolutionary changes, and at least this part of the Disc seems to be on its way to continuing progress and growth. Yeah, there was a lot in there, but all in all it’s a satisfying send off. The next book, The Shepherd’s Crown, is another Tiffany Aching story – and the last in Discworld. It’ll be bittersweet.